Category: Art in Second Life

Mounting an exhibition comprising some 44 self-portraits might sound like an exercise in narcissistic self-expression; and there are probably artists around the world where this reaction, were they to present such an exhibition, would be justified. However, Lis Xia (Xia Chieng) is most assuredly not one of them. While her work tends to be self-centric, it does so without the more negative demands of ego and most certainly without any connotations of narcissism.

Rather, in being focused on herself, Xia’s self-portraits are reflections of a much deeper, sled-explorative mechanism. One offered through a range of mediums – photography, painting, digital post-processing, drawing and even film, Lis’ art reflects her journey through life, her inner dialogues with self, her desire to reveal to herself the person she actually is and her relationship with the world at large.

In this, Lis’ images – individually and collectively – can be seen as a narrative; a series of stories which are both interwoven one to the next but also standing apart from any contiguous meaning or conceived literally direction. Each image can be appreciated and reflected upon in its own right as a work of art, whilst collectively they embody an existential enquiry which is individual to the artist. True, there are times when Lis chooses to focus on a specific element within her life – such as dealing with her Asperger’s, which formed the nucleus of two exhibitions Lis presented in 2021: Visions of an Aspie (reviewed here) and Assburguer’s Mood Diary (reviewed here), but more often she casts her exhibitions more widely.

I am on personal journey; personal exploration into the essence of the live; the nature of the relationship between my senses, ideas and perceptions and the external world; my conception of space and substance. Only things that are personal can be truly real for me.

– Lis Xia (Xia Chieng)

Such is the case with Portraits of an Obsession, which opened at Hermes Kondor’s Kondor Art Centre in mid-September and will run through until mid-October. Comprising the aforementioned 44 self-portraits, through its title it acknowledges Lis’ fascination with using art to better define who she is and express the truths of her inner nature and perceptions whilst also facing the personal and demons which might strive to deny her the freedom, self-expression and self-appreciation.

In this, Portraits almost follows on – albeit indirectly – from 2019’s Xia’s Diary (reviewed here) by associating each image with a poem or ode, thus allowing the observer to not only witness her thoughts and feelings as expressed through an image, but also ride the train of her thinking and feelings very directly through line and stanza. Thus, we are invited to join Lis in her experience and expression, and allow both to resonate with our own thoughts and emotions, as Lis notes herself:

Images and poetry converge through the use of vintage medium format cameras and expired film. The photographs capture moments steeped in nostalgia and emotion. Alongside these visuals, some illustrations rendered in gouache, ink, and pencil techniques add depth and texture to the narrative. … Through the fusion of visual and written elements, my goal is to convey a deeper meaning or narrative, inviting viewers to interact with the art on multiple levels and awakening their imagination and emotions.

– Lis Xia (Xia Chieng)

Within these images and poems there is a resonance which might naturally, if subconsciously occur even without a deeper exploration of the ideas and feelings Lis presents. Think about how much time we spend tweaking, adjusting, changing, improving it in looks, appearance and appeal; is this not a similar form of self-exploration? Does not the canvas of our avatar allow us, through each adjustment, each change, large or small, help to express what lies within us, enabling us to to find better affirmation of both who we are an who we wish to be?

Through her art – visual and written, Lis has refined this process to a point where not only can we see her own journey, her own experiments and experiences with self – we can witness a reflection of our own. In doing so, we are naturally drawn closer to the work on display, and thus into Lis’ own world; and while we may not come to understand all that is being said we can at witness the beauty of her soul.

SLurl Details

• Kondor Art Centre (Waka, rated Moderate)

Two of the things I can appreciate in life are coffee and art. When it comes to the former, I take pride in being both an appreciator and a creator; I very much believe in the “old” saying life is too short for bad coffee, and always enjoy a well-made cup and genuinely enjoy making my own from beans to cup (by way of automatic prosumer coffee maker or a Cafetiere / French Press or a Moka pot, depending on mood / company). When it comes to the latter, however, I’m strictly an appreciator because I can neither draw nor paint. 

However, with LiThO Gallery I’ve found that I can enjoy both – and can combine my coverage of the arts in SL with my occasional series of cafés and coffee houses in Second Life whilst also making my way back to the Corsica South Coasters community, which I’ve also written about on numerous occasions (most notably in covering exhibitions at NovaOwl Galleries). Sub-titling itself the tiny art(ist) Café, LiThO offers a neat little play on words whilst also fulfilling its primary purpose: a place to relax and enjoy art.

The play on words – as the notes from owners Lizzy Swordthain and Tom Willis available from the café’s terrace explain – first off takes the short-form of lithography, the planographic method of printing developed by author and actor Alois Senefelder, and most frequently used initially for musical scores and maps. In the second, it is a tease on their SL names. It occupies one of three parcels the couple have developed, the one alongside the café offering an open-air event space (although the café also has one of its own up on the roof and reached via stairs to one side of the building). The reaming parcel, to the rear of the café, is a private home, the two separated by the gully and bridge – the latter marking the limit of public spaces.

As a gallery space, the café hosts modest exhibitions in casual boutique style. Pieces from the invited artist are displayed the the two covered wings of the terrace and on the walls of the café’s rooms. At the time of my visit the gallery was playing host to an exhibition of Second Life landscapes by Michiel Bechir  – an artist whose work is always worth seeing. It opened on September 3rd, 2023, so has a while to run for those wishing to visit without feeling rushed. The select of pieces – 15 in total are well-suited to the ambience of the café and offer engaging views of some of Second Life’s most popular public regions, past and present.

Cosy and nicely presented, LiThO makes for an easy-going visit, and the trails and paths around it offer opportunities for exploration.

SLurl Details

• LiThO Gallery (Durdane, rated Moderate)

Melusina Parkin has been expanding both her main gallery spaces and her exhibitions of late, with the former now presenting two individual gallery spaces above her main store, which she is using to host a total of four new collections of her work, three of which see Melusina dip her fingers into the world of AI art.

Both of the gallery spaces can be reached via Melu’s landing point, which also provides access to her art deco store and annex, or can be reached via the individual SLurls provided below, with galleries and store locations also being linked via teleport disks as well.

As an entirely arbitrary decision on my part, I’m starting with the Black Gallery. This is in fact split into two independent levels, also linked by the teleport disks, allowing it  to host two separate exhibitions. The first is Horizons, located in the Black Gallery 2. Taken from within Second Life, it presents a collection of 20 images captured in Melu’s familiar minimalist style.

As the title of the collection suggests, each of these 20 images offers a unique view out towards a horizon. From deserts to views out over open waters, from fields of ripening crops stretching out into the far distance to looking across coastal sands to where the water takes over (or conversely from the shallows of the water back across the costal sands, these are all expressive pieces suggestive of a vast openness – even the one showing the sand/grass dappled flatness of a region awaiting the touch of terraforming tools.

True, some include evidence of life – a fence separating land from sea; a bench awaiting tired legs to lighten their load for a while; a train line cutting a horizontal divide beteen observer and distant horizon. But these only serve to heighten the sense of vastness inherent within these images. But “vastness” does not necessarily equate to “emptiness” – and to think otherwise would be a mistake.

With her photography, Melu is a storyteller. Or perhaps a better term might be story prompter; within all of her photography it is what isn’t seen that captivates; the suggestions of stories hovering just at the edge of the frame as each picture prods us to see beyond the literal. For example:  what might come thundering down that train track, shattering the peace, and who or what might it be carrying a to where? What is the promise of the far side of the sea, or what new adventure await beyond the broken horizon presented by the approaching foreshore? What might yet be raised from the flat evenness of an untouched region, and who might one day explore its wonders? The opportunities to create stories and tales is as vast as the spaces Melu presents within these 20 pieces.

On the level below, is the first of the three AI related collections Melusina is currently presenting. Entitled 100 Retro Ladies, it comprises four sets of 25 images apiece. Each set is framed by a colour, and all are built around a theme of fashion at the height of the Art Deco era in Europe (early 1920s through early 1930s) – a time when women started to embody a new boldness and drive towards self-recognition, greater expression and more social freedom.

Each set of images – each named for the tint which largely defines them: Red, Teal, Black and Ivory – presents itself five pictures as a time around the gallery walls (so a total of only 20 images is displayed at any given time. To see the remaining images within each colour set, click on the white panels on which each group of pictures is mounted.

Sitting between the Black Gallery and Melu’s shop is the Minimum Gallery, home to two further exhibitions of AI-based art: Broken Mirrors and Kisses. both again present women who, in terms of look and style, might be seen as being draw from the 1920s.

As noted above, and thanks to movements such as the drive for emancipation in the early 20th century, coupled with (in Europe at least) the need for women to take up functions and work normally the preserve of men as a result of the Great War, the 1920s was a period where women in the western world were starting to spread their wings and seek greater and more open freedoms from the strictures imposed by society. Kisses is a direct reflection of this, depicting and reflecting a period when a part of that greater expressiveness took the former of more open displays of affection / love / sexuality, be it in the form of a simple chaste kiss on the lips through to something deeper and indicative of desires beyond friendship / affection.

On the upper level of the gallery, Melu presents the most  – for me – compelling of the three AI-related collections, Broken Mirrors. I say this not to diminish Kisses or 100 Retro Ladies is any way, but because within this collect is a rich narrative depth which naturally attracts  whilst also giving out something of a challenge. Within them, we are encouraged not not to just see images of women before broken mirrors, but to contemplate how we might better understand the myriad facets of personality and self, and how we might find a more integrated life by doing so, as Melu notes in the introduction to this collection:

Mirrors are fragile and it’s very easy that they get broken. Nonetheless, even a broken mirror can be helpful. Try to look at your image on a broken mirror. You could be frightened or intrigued:  you can think that the fragmented image you see says that you are overwhelmed, destroyed, cut in pieces by your problems, trauma issues. Or you can see those fragments as different parts of yourself, and seeing them can be helpful in knowing each of them better, and trying to make them live and interact together successfully.

– Melusina Parkin, Broken Mirrors

All individually engaging, the AI collections presented within Broken Mirrors, Kisses  and 100 Retro Ladies are a new an interesting extension to Melusina’s art, one which offers something of a unique approach in using AI toolsets compared to some other artists experimenting with the medium. Meanwhile, and for those who prefer, Horizons demonstrates Melu is not abandoning her flair for presenting equally engaging Second Life focused photographic art.

 SLurl Details

• Melu’s Pace Main Landing Point (Lunula, rated Moderate)

Since it opened in June (see: Linden Lab and Motown: a new approach to user on-boarding in Second Life), the Motown Welcome Hub has hosted a number of events, with the most recent being a Scavenger Hunt and, for the weekend of the 2nd September, 2023, a Trivia event with music (from noon through until 14:00 SLT).

However, on new venue which may have been overlooked in the hubbub surrounding the recent Scavenger Hunt is the opening of the Motown Art Gallery, feature for it’s first (?) exhibition, the work of one of SL’s most well-known – and rightly celebrated – physical world artists, JudiLynn India, who uses the platform as a means to bring her art to a global audience, thus demonstrating one of Second Life’s great strengths in providing a reach which can at times exceed that available to us in the physical world.

The gallery is housed in a warehouse-like building on the north side of the open-air music events area within the main Motown region, and offers both an indoor display space across a main an mezzanine floor, and additional space within its back lot (which can be either reached most readily via the alleyway running between the gallery’s neighbouring beauty salon and pizza house, or in the case of JudiLynn’s exhibition, the thoughtfully-provided teleport disc on the gallery’s main floor.

I’ve been drawing since I could hold a crayon. I studied art throughout school, Commercial Art in high school and Graphic Design at Tyler School of Art/Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. I’ve always been interested in various crafts such as sewing and ceramics. I’ve also been active in music, playing piano, guitar and violin. After the turn of the century, I decided to focus my creativity on acrylic and digital painting and have totally enjoyed the ongoing journey.

– JudiLynn India

JudiLynn is perhaps best known is Second Life for her vibrant and richly layered abstract art, produced both through “wet” painting and digital means, and which might be most accurately described as intuitive art. By this I mean that rather than being based on an specific premeditated design or idea, these are pieces that are defined through the artistic process itself; the loop between mood, colour, texture and imagination all combining with what is already on the canvas or screen to inform what should come next. allow each piece to grow entirely organically to a finished state.

The result of this are pieces rich in colour and contrast and also highly fluid in their nature. They attract the eye and offer patterns and interactions which seem to ebb and flow as the eye passes over them, provoking the imagination. Sometimes motifs or patterns will become apparent which will lead JudiLynn to experiment with them across two or more pieces, resulting in small collections such as the likes of  Spiralling, Land of Fantasy, Jazzy and Fences, all of which can be found within the “backyard” section of this exhibition.

However, JudiLynn’s work covers a much broader canvas – so to speak – which encompasses portraiture, pieces exuding an impressionist sensibility and landscapes. Some of this work is again demonstrated within this exhibition through the likes of the utterly captivating Royal Elegance, Grace and Majestic pieces.

None of the pieces presented is available for sale; for those looking to make some purchases for their SL homes / appreciation, please refer to the list of galleries included in JudiLynn’s biography available through the wall panel under the stairs leading up to the mezzanine area. For those who would like to have JudiLynn’s work as part of their physical lives, do be sure to visit her website.

As noted through the use of the bracketed question mark towards the top of this article, I’ve no idea whether exhibitions at the gallery will be rotated or on what basis; frankly, I’d be very disappointed if this were not the case; the inclusion of the gallery within the Welcome Hub is an excellent means of demonstrating SL’s ability to stand as a platform for artistic expressionism in its visual forms as much as the music venue outside the gallery demonstrates its ability to be a venue for social events and entertainment (and in regard to  visual art, I would also note JudiLynn has taken care to give a subtle underlining of SL’s scope for 3D artistic expression as well). As such, and whilst recommending JudiLynn’s exhibition, I certainly hope we’ll get to see the gallery reflect all genres of 2D and 3D art popular within SL.

SLurl Details

• Motown Art Gallery (Motown, rated Moderate)